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We'll Always Have Paris - Rick Blaine Casablanca

My 4 month journey of Europe is finished now. 9 Countires, 22 Hotels, trains, planes ferries, 4 rental cars, 10 or 11 AirBnb's (Ive lost count) many splendid Cathedrals, Churches, Monasteries and chapels innumerable ancient sites and museums. We loved them all and even though to many it must seem that we had an abundance of time, often was the occasion we wanted to stay somewhere longer.

We met wonderful amazing people and witnessed for ourselves the incredible overcrowding of the very special and popular sights of France and Italy. We witnessed incredible acts of kindness and generosity and horrible behaviour of some visitors who came to blows over a spot in line at the Vatican Museum. The seat of ...Christianity....

We ate delicious food from France, Italy, Bulgaria, Istanbul and Greece and found great conversation and heartwarming tales among those that served us and that we met along the way.

But the Coda of this trip came at the end, on our return to Paris. We first landed in Paris on April 17th and spent ten days there. We returned on August 15th. We scheduled 2 days there to get ready for our flight home and just think about all we had done and seen along the way. We spent one last day strolling our favorite neighborhood in Paris. We went to our favorite cheese shop and fruit shop and had lunch at a place on Rue Montorguiel. We feasted on Veal Chops and Beef Bourguignon, Snails, fine cheese and a great wine from Burgundy.

After lunch we stopped at a small bar to have an Aperol Spritz and were headed back to Chatelet Les Halles Metro when we noticed the doors to the church of St Eustache were open. Now in our ten previous days in Paris in April, we never found this open when we went by, so we dashed over. Immediately upon crossing the threshold we were awash with the music from the organ and as our eyes were drawn up and up and up to the ribbed Gothic structure that soared overhead bathed in afternoon light from the glorious stained glass we both stopped, mouths agape and tears in our eyes.

St Eustache is to my mind one of Paris' most amazing gothic structures. Built between 1532 and 1632 it stands as one of the jewels of Paris Architecture. And there at the organ sat a young man with a similarly young Music Director at his side. They were practicing for the recital the next day. We sat in awed silence as parts of Bach, Verdi and others were run through. The pipes of this organ are the size of a small house and fill that enormous space with a sound so clear and resonant and moving there just are no words to adequately describe it.

Back outside we felt that this was the perfect end to a great trip and I looked over at my friend and traveling companion Miss Mary and said, in my best imitation of Bogart...We'll always have Paris...

Posted by
681 posts

I have enjoyed reading all your entries on your amazing trip. Where are you planning next?

Posted by
503 posts

What a lovely way to end your trip. Moments of serendipity are absolutely the best.

Posted by
3961 posts

I was waiting to read your final installment. It did not disappoint! It truly sounded like a perfect ending. Thanks so much for every amazing detail.

Posted by
3150 posts

But what’s Jake’s favorite “Wow” moment? Thanks for sharing.

Posted by
32173 posts

It sounds like your trip was absolutely fantastic - that's the best kind! Hope you got lots of pictures. I assume you're already thinking about the next trip.

Posted by
235 posts

I truly enjoyed following along on your trip (and part of that time I too was abroad). Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences.

Posted by
1499 posts

We want to agree with many of the posters who thanked you for your trip reports, your observations, and for sharing your experiences. We enjoyed all of them (I read some of your experiences aloud to Mr so we could discuss them). We agree with your sentiment that it's the people who make the trip. We often remember the town, hotel, or restaurant by reminding each other of a person or people we spoke with while there. I also like what you said regarding having time to think about all you had done and seen while on your trip. We do this after we return home, looking back and discussing what we did, and it really adds to and gives meaning to the experience - it's not just seeing things but experiencing them. Thanks again and hopefully you'll take another trip you can share with us!

Posted by
9404 posts

It’s been so fun reading all your posts and following along with you!

I agree about time, we’ve done several 2 and 3 mos trips, enjoyed every minute, wanted more time, and didn’t want to leave. For us, a trip is never long enough.

Do you have another trip in the works?
I hope so, I want to follow along... 😊

Posted by
1281 posts

You have a wonderful way of putting your travel experiences into perspective and I just loved traveling vicariously through your journeys. Thank you for the great reports.

Linda

Posted by
546 posts

Thank you so much to all of you. It is so humbling and amazing to know that people followed my posts and enjoyed them. Your kind words are appreciated and make me smile.

One of the things that I wanted to do when I started posting was to be more immediate and in the moment than what I was generally reading. Of course I realize that I had the luxury of time on my side too and if you are on a quick two week tour of Europe it's much harder to find the time to write as you go. My greatest hope is that something I wrote will help someone else.

Lisa mentioned Serendipity and its surprises and I we found this true many times. Often we would just decide to take a walk somewhere and run in to the best thing one can imagine. Something unplanned, unlooked for and unsuspectingly fabulous.

@Phillip...Jake's best moment of the trip had to be when he spotted an entire ice cream cone on the streets of Naples one day. "Oh My God!!" he must have thought...a place with ICE CREAM just laying on the sidewalk!! He gobbled down quite a bit before I got him away from it. (To his dismay I am sure)

I have been late in answering your comments here as I have been traveling already again...but not overseas. The day after we landed at Dulles I started out with my RV heading toward Arizona (Flagstaff) but then detoured to Tucson where I am now. I drove over 2700 miles in 6 days (Ive seen all that country in between too many times to count and just needed to get here) So here we are in (VERY) sunny Arizona. It's an odd time to come to this state but I do have a good reason.

For now we will be in the US and maybe spend some of the winter in Mexico. But when we go overseas again I will definitely be writing about it.

Coming home and the culture shock that attends that has been a bit jarring and we miss the beautiful vegetables and food of France and Bulgaria and Greece and Italy. And we miss many of the European ways of doing some things. But that is another post.

Thanks again so much for all of your kind words.

Posted by
9404 posts

I hear you about Culture Shock... very difficult and jarring for me.

Poor Jake that you took that ice cream cone away from him! 🐶 🍦

Enjoy the trip you’re on now... : )